Five jaw-dropping custom motorcycles

Most motorcycle enthusiasts share a motto: "Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul." And a new generation of bike builders are taking that concept to new heights by creating ever sexier and exciting individually designed caf racers, scramblers and cruisers for style conscious riders. Anthony "Dutch" van Someren, the founder of the Bike Shed Motorcycle Club, has picked his five favourites from the fleet that will be on display at the Paris Show in April

Most motorcycle enthusiasts share a motto: "Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul." And a new generation of bike builders are taking that concept to new heights by creating ever sexier and exciting individually designed café racers, scramblers and cruisers for style conscious riders. Anthony "Dutch" van Someren, the founder of the Bike Shed Motorcycle Club, has picked his five favourites from the fleet that will be on display at the Paris Show in April...

The Poster Boy - Clutch Customs T100

"This 2007 Triumph T100 was built by Clutch Custom Motorcycles, a Parisian custom builder headed-up by American ex-pat Willie Knoll. For us, the bike represents the perfect balance of simplicity and class, in a bike that epitomises the kind of ride anyone would be happy to own. It's neither classic nor modern, but completely timeless; a bike that you could park anywhere. Rather than gathering a crowd, it's the kind of bike that people take sneaky iPhone photos of, or give you the thumbs up or a knowing nod of approval. Understated British - straight outta Paris, via NYC."

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Zadig MC - One Punch

"Harley-Davidson engines and raw metal finished are the kind of custom bike cliche we usually try to avoid at the Bike Shed, but just like the occasional Metallica song, sometimes heavy metal isn't always so bad and you can't help but tap your feet in time to the music. So it is with Zadig MCs "One Punch" named in tribute to Brad Pitt's boxing 'Pikey' in Snatch, also the name of the builders dog, who was inherited through rather tragic circumstances we won't go into here. The bland donor 2007 H-D 883 looks 50 years old mated to the rusty tank and open metalwork, but the rear sets and clip-ons give the bike a modern stance while the snaking wrapped pipes under the seat have a Mad-Max appeal. Builder Fabian Giordano describes the bike as a Vintage gypsy dragster" And why not?"

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Triumph Mega-Scrambler

"Last year Triumph got so excited by the new wave custom scene, they let their own engineers loose on a secret in-house build-off, with no idea of the outcome. Two all-volunter teams were given a basic Triumph Bonneville each, and told to do what they want, with a limited budget and in their own time. These initiatives are often carefully managed PR stunts, designed tease new models or sell after market products, but in this case the teams were genuinely left to their own devices, so instead of creating some board-approved prequel to a future model, they broke every rule, building two inspired bikes with some stunning engineering a components that schooled a few long term pro builders in how to really build a custom bike. Although the "winner" was the girder-forked Bobber with reversed heads, I have a sweet spot for the insanely lanky scrambler, with it's motocross proportions, top level chassis parts and suspension, and superlight one-off frame.

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Infrared - Yamaha Yard Built VMax by JvB

"The Yamaha VMax is a modern classic. The very definition on a factory-built muscle bike. When Yamaha relaunched the marque it needed to tick every box, so just to make sure, Shun Miyazawa head of Yamaha's Yard-Bult programme, handed a brand new bike to Jens vom Brauck at JvB for him to fettle, and he did them proud with a bike that manages to capture the character of the original bike while taking advantage of all the upgrades in design and components. The solid-disc wheels, flat-mounted clip-on bars and orange metal-flake paint shout American Hot Rod, but somehow the bike retains some European finesse from JvB and isn't so visually loud that you couldn't ride it every day."

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Nick's Ducati 900ss

"As well as celebrating builds from the custom Pros, we also like to celebrate the work of talented Shed builders, labouring away in their yards, garages, back gardens or sometimes in the kitchen, much to the dismay of their better halves. This shed-built bike was put together by Nick, another American Ex-Pat in Europe, this time relocated from Detroit to Cologne. Ducatis tick a lot of boxes in the new-wave custom scene, because they've been building futuristically fast and capable bikes for decades, so whatever style of build you go for, you'll end up with a fast lightweight bike that turns and stops like a modern machine. This 900ss has a hybrid cafe/flat tracker look and weighs in at a waif-like 152kg, and has a few seat configurations including a race-inspired numberboard."

The Bike Shed Paris Show, sponsored by Triumph, is at Carreau de Temple on from 11-12 April. thebikeshed.cc

How we made our custom motorbike for the Car Awards 2018

Here it is, and this is how we did it... watch the 'making of' film of the Triumph Thruxton R, the bespoke custom café racer built by Untitled Motorcycles, in association with Barbour International, for the GQ Car Awards 2018.